Saturday, June 26, 2010

STILLEN GT-R Spectre 341 Hillclimb Updates

Looks like cell phone coverage is decent out in Virginia City where STILLEN and Steve Millen are running the GT-R at the Spectre 341 Challenge. We’ll use this blog post as a place to post updates and photos we get back from the team. We’ll have a full recap after the event ends.

Friday 6/25 – 11:20am (Kyle via text)

Phone works okay.. no real updates.. did drivers meeting this morning and the drivers got a tour of the race course with tips from Amir from Spectre

The HRE Porsche is pretty nice and looks well prepared and the LG Vette is nice.. light weight good tires.. all good

There’s a hearse here too! I don’t know about it though.. I think they are just here

Friday 6/25 – 11:43am (Kyle via text)

The hearse now has numbers.. looks like it’s running!

Friday 6/25 – 12:33pm (Kyle via text)

Just started sprinkling and apparently they’re delaying the start (we’d really like to run!)

(Questioned Kyle on whether it was a get in line type of deal, or if everyone is running it a set number of times?)

Just get in line..

We haven’t even left the hotel.. were trying to convince them to let us run

There is 700-1100 horsepower Porsche.. there are some huge horsepower cars up here

Friday 6/25 – 12:33pm (Kyle via text)

We did find out though that they aren’t posting any times until tomorrow night. We have a stop watch that we’ll keep track of our time, but we don’t know how everyone else is doing

Steve and Jodi Millen

That’s not a typo on Jodi’s race suit!

Friday 6/25 – 2:27pm (Kyle via text)

We were two minutes from starting but the safety crew had to leave for a local accident… no go on the restart. The accident was not on the course.. the same crew is on call for the other highways as well. Unfortunately this is cutting down on the number of possible runs.

Friday 6/25 – 2:52pm (Kyle via text)

Cars are away!!! The GT-R was second in line!

Friday 6/25 – 3:20pm (Kyle via text)

First run was good.. they’re just going to increase boost.. tires are still a bit greasy but starting to come in

Friday 6/25 – 3:46pm (Kyle via text)

GT-R just took off for its second run.. looks like he’s chasing it harder this run

Done for the day.. Steve is pretty happy with the car and is still trying to scrub in the tires. Only made three runs but I think they’re happy with what theyre seeing.

The high elevation has caused a big drop in boost but the TurboSmart boost controller is allowing them to adjust that and increase pressure.

Look for more updates tomorrow..

Saturday 6/26 – 9:08am (Kyle via text)

First run of the day they shaved 3.5 seconds off from their fast time from yesterday.

Saturday 6/26 – 9:34am (Kyle via text)

They just shaved another three seconds.

There is a really fast EVO up here with really sticky nittos and the driver has a lot of experience.

Saturday 6/26 – 9:59am (Kyle via text)

If we had some better tires like the Dunlops we’d be much faster. Unfortunately the Dunlops are on national back order otherwise we’d have them on the car.. according to Nissan they’re good for around a second a mile faster.

Saturday 6/26 – 10:16am (Kyle via text)

Saturday 6/26 – 10:25am (Kyle via text)

We softened the STILLEN front sway bar last night, and Steve is saying its helped a lot and he can start turning the back of the car today.. I’m sure that’s where some of the time is coming from.